IS THIS ALONE FALSE

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Is This Alone False?

By Sadhu Om

Sri Niranjananda Swami, the Sarvadhikari of Sri Ramanasramam, desired

that the first major biography of Sri Bhagavan should be written in

Tamil. But at the time, B. V. Narasimha Swami was gathering

information and facts in order to write a good biography of Sri

Bhagavan in English. However, even before this English book was

published, a Malayalam scholar came one day to have darshan of Sri

Bhagavan. As soon as he saw Sri Bhagavan he was inspired to write his

biography, since he had the habit of writing the life story in

Malayalam of any great soul he happen to meet. So immediately after

arriving he began to gather information from some local people,

asking them, “Who is this Ramana Maharshi?” “Where was he born?” and

so on.

Not being familiar with Bhagavan or the understanding that the

Self-realization of a Jnani is itself his real greatness, some people

naturally imagined that Bhagavan should possess all sorts of

supernatural powers (siddhis) and they therefore spread rumors which

attributed such powers to him, thinking that they were thereby

glorifying him. Though Bhagavan Ramana taught that all siddhis are as

trivial as straw and are to be regarded as treacherous friends by the

spiritual aspirant, even he was not spared from the rumors created by

such people. Unfortunately, it was only from this type of people that

the Malayalam scholar quickly gathered biographical information on

Bhagavan. Then, within a day, he edited all his notes and completed

writing the biography.

Now, according to his biography Bhagavan was a householder, a lawyer

from Madurai who had three children. It was also reported that Sri

Ramana exhibited a number of siddhis in various places. In this way,

many fantastic but untrue incidents were contained in that biography.

When he had finished writing it, the Malayalam scholar brought the

biography to Sri Bhagavan.

Among those living with Sri Bhagavan at that time, no one knew

Malayalam except Kunju Swami, and he happened to be absent on that

day. Therefore, Bhagavan, who was himself well versed in Malayalam

poetry and literature, read the whole biography from beginning to

end, stopping only here and there to correct some spelling mistakes,

and then returned it to the author without altering even a single

statement or idea. Thinking that the biography he had written was

correct in every respect, having been seen and corrected by Sri

Bhagavan himself, the author was very happy.

Soon the news spread among the devotees in the Asramam that the life

of Sri Bhagavan had been written in Malayalam. However, since no one

knew that language, they did not know what was written in it. The

next day Kunju Swami returned to the Asramam and the devotees all

eagerly told him, “This new devotee has written Bhagavan’s biography

in Malayalam. Bhagavan has also gone through it and approved it after

making all the necessary corrections.”

With great surprise and joy, Kunju Swami received the biography from

the Malayalam scholar and began to read through it. But when he saw

the many untrue reports written in it, he was unable to bear it. He

went to the author and tactfully said to him, “Many statements in

this biography are totally incorrect! I am afraid that you have not

gathered your information from the proper sources.”

But with great confidence the author replied, “There is not even a

single mistake in it. See, Bhagavan himself has corrected it with his

own pen wherever it was necessary. So I am confident that this alone

is his correct life history.”

Without saying anything further, Kunju Swami brought the biography to

Sri Bhagavan and complained, “O Bhagavan! Your own handwriting is

found here in many places, so you must have seen this. But how can

this all be true?”

"Are all these other things true (pointing to the world), and is this

alone false?" replied Sri Bhagavan with a peaceful smile.

Though this sounds humorous, we should notice the profound teaching that lies hidden in it.

>From his reply it is clear that the everattained experience of Sri

Bhagavan, who teaches that the world is a mere false appearance, is

that even the ego, the individual, who sees the world, is itself

false.

Those who do not know the Self cannot but feel slighted and angry if

some historical facts in their life, which would have otherwise given

them fame and glory, were omitted or written about in a distorted

manner.

In this world, which is full of so-called great ones who strenuously

seek praise and publicity for self glorification, how exalted is the

greatness of Bhagavan Ramana who was completely indifferent to any

amount of disparaging words about him!

In Bhagavan's view, even the biography we now have, which records his

life as we saw it with our own eyes, is as true as this Malayalam

biography.

That is to say, in Bhagavan's view, even his birth, his attainment of

Self-realization, his renunciation and his life as Jagat_Guru are

just as real or unreal as this Malayam biography!

Reproduced from Arunachala Ramana, April 1982

(a monthly magazine from Andhra Pradesh)

 

THE MAHARSHI

January/February 2005Vol. 15 - No. 1

Produced & Edited byDennis HartelDr. Anil K. Sharma

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